The generation effect and word learning: a test of the effect of the language experience approach versus the text approach in the acquisition of new reading vocabulary

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Abstract

A class of twenty-two grade one children was tested to
determine their reading levels using the Stanford Diagnostic
Reading Achievement Test. Based on these results and
teacher input the students were paired according to reading
ability. The students ages ranged from six years four
months to seven years four months at the commencement of the
study. Eleven children were assigned to the language
experience group and their partners became the text group.
Each member of the language experience group generated a
list of eight to be learned words. The treatment consisted
of exposing the student to a given word three times per
session for ten sessions, over a period of five days. The
dependent variables consisted of word identification speed,
word identification accuracy, and word recognition accuracy.
Each member of the text group followed the same procedure
using his/her partner's list of words. Upon completion of
this training, the entire process was repeated with members
of the text group from the first part becoming members of
the language experience group and vice versa.
The results suggest that generally speaking language
experience words are identified faster than text words but
that there is no difference in the rate at which these words
are learned. Language experience words may be identified
faster because the auditory-semantic information is more
readily available in them than in text words. The rate of learning in both types of words, however, may be dictated by
the orthography of the to be learned word.